176 The fourth Sign PART III. and applying the Rules of God's holy Word : And fo God teaches them his Statutes, andcaufes them to underfland the Way ofhis Precepts ; which the Pfalmift fo often prays for. But this Leading of the Spirit is a Thing exceéding diverfe from that which fome call fo ; which confifts not in teaching them God's Statutes and Precepts, that he has already given ; but in giving them new Precepts, by immediate inward Speech or Suggeftion ; and has in it no Tafting the true Excellency of Things, or judging or difcern- ing the Nature of Things at all. They don't determine what is the Will of God by any Tafte or Relifh, or any Manner of Judgment of the Nature of Things, but by an immediate Dictate concerning the Thing to be done : There is no fuch Thing as any Judgment or Wifdom in the Cafe. Whereas in that Leading of the Spirit which is peculiar to God's Children, is imparted that true Wifdom, and holy Difcretion, fooften fpoken of in the Word of God ; which is high above the other Way, as the Stars are higher than a Glow- Worm ; and that which Balaam and Saul (who fometimes were led by the Spirit in that other Wav) never had, and no natural Man can have, without a Change of Nature. 'What has been laid of the Nature of fpiritual Underftanding, as. confifting moft effentially in a divine fupernatural Senfe and Relifh of the Heart, not only thews that there is nothing of it in this falfly fuppofed Leading of theSpirit, which has been now fpoken of ; but allo Ihows the Difference between fpiritual Underftanding, and all Kinds and Forms of Enthufiafm, all imaginary Sights of God and Chrift and Heaven, all fuppofed Witneffing of the Spirit, and Teftimonies of tie Love of God by immediate inward Suggeftion ; and all Im prefiions of future Events, and immediate Revelations of any fcret Fats whatfoever ; all enthufiaftical Impreflions and Applications of 'Words of Scripture, as tho' they were Words now immediately fpo- ken by God to a particular Perfon, in a new Meaning, and carrying fomething more in them, than the Words contain as they lie in the Bible ; and all Interpretations of the myftical Meaning of the Scrip- ture, by fuppofed immediate Revelation. None of there Things confift in a divine Senfe and Relifh of the Heart, - of the holy Beauty and Excellency of divine Things ; nor have they any Thing to do with fuch a Senfe ; but all confift in Imprefions in the Head ; all are to be refer'd to the Head of Impreffions on the Imagination, and confift in, the exciting external Ideas in the Mind, either in Ideas of outward Shapes and Colours, or Words fpoken, or Letters written, or Ideas of Things external and fenfible, belonging to Actions done, or Events accomplifhed, or to be Accomplifhed. An enthufiaftical fuppofed Manifeftation of the Love of God, is made by the exciting an Idea of a finding Countenance, or fome other pleafant outward Appea- rance, or by the Idea of pleafant Words - fpoken, or written, excited
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=